After New Orleans
by Kathryn Claire O'Connor
Summary: JJ confesses some things to Reid. With his help, can she overcomes them, and maybe even manage to find the love of her life in the process? Mentions of abuse and rated "T" because I'm paranoid.
1. Chapter 1

**This takes place somewhere during the time when JJ is dating Will, but the team doesn't know it, and it's a little AU for that reason. And because I'm seriously taking Will out of character. **

* * *

Spencer Reid folded a piece of gum into his mouth and watched as JJ walked into the darkened BAU bullpen, dragging a suitcase behind her and looking like much less than her cheery self. She had just gotten back from a personal trip - to where, Spencer didn't know - and something was obviously wrong. He couldn't tell from her eyes, because she was wearing huge, dark sunglasses, but she was tense, and moving as if she was in pain.

He stood up, intercepting her on her way to her office.

"Hey, JJ. Here, let me take that."

He took hold of her suitcase with a smile and offered her a stick of his Juicy Fruit.

"Thanks." JJ accepted the offering with a small, half-hearted smile. They started together towards her office as JJ said, "It's late, Spence, what are you still doing here?"

Spencer shrugged. "Just finishing up my reports. We missed you on that last case; where did you go?"

"New Orleans." JJ answered with a sigh as they stepped into her office.

"All the way to New Orleans?"

JJ nodded, turning her back to him. "But that's another story, another town." She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, taking off her sunglasses. "Another life. I'm not going to go back."

"Why?" Spencer asked.

As her answer, she turned around to face Spencer. In the muted light of her desk lamp, he saw the dark bruise covering her eye.

"JJ?" he gasped. "What happened?"

She looked down at her feet. "I don't want to talk about it here."

"You... you can come back to my apartment if you want to. We can talk there. If you want."

JJ nodded. Spencer picked her suitcase back up and timidly put his arm around her shoulders to lead her out of the room, but drew instantly away when she yelped in pain from the contact. This was not a story that he was going to enjoy hearing, he had a feeling.

At his apartment, Spencer got JJ settled onto the couch and made sure she took something for the pain that she was obviously in before covering her with an afghan.

"Do you want something to drink or eat?" he asked.

"My stomach hurts too much for food. Do you have any tea?"

Spencer nodded. "I'll make chamomile, it's supposed to be soothing."

"Thanks, Spence." she murmured, a ghost of a smile flickering across her lips as her eyes drifted shut.

Spencer strode into the kitchen, his own stomach in knots. Whoever had done whatever had been done to JJ was going to pay for it, and dearly so. He would see to that personally.

Over the next hour and a half, JJ poured out her story.

Her boyfriend that no one in the BAU knew about, Will LaMontagne, who lived in New Orleans, had been the perfect gentleman when they had started dating. But then he had started drinking. And then he had started abusing her. And today had been the day when she had finally told him it was over between them. Before she left though, he had given her another beating as a final parting gift.

As she drew her real-life horror story to a close, JJ was sobbing. Hoping that the meds had done their job well enough to make it permissible, Spencer did what he knew would help her and pulled her into the safety and comfort of his embrace.

When the tears slowed, JJ asked, exhausted from the day and her confession, "Can I sleep here tonight? I don't want to be in my apartment by myself."

"Of course." Spencer smoothed her hair. "Whatever you need, JJ, I'm here for you."

"Thank you, Spence." Her voice began to slur with the need for sleep. "And please... don't tell the others what I told you. I don't want them to know."

He nodded. "I won't."

She fell asleep in his arms before the words were even out of his mouth.

* * *

The next morning, out of necessity, the two of them ended up sharing the only bathroom in his apartment while getting ready for work. Spencer brushed his teeth, watching the blonde media liaison artfully apply her makeup. She covered up the black eye with a painfully practiced hand; Spencer would have never even known it was there.

_How many others have been there that I haven't known about?_ he wondered.

It was a thought that was best left alone, and so he shoved it away. Like JJ had said: another story, another town, another life.

* * *

At the end of the day at work, she only had to look at him with the thought in her eyes - I don't want to be by myself yet. - and he steered her into his car without the others noticing.

They hadn't noticed anything about either JJ or Spencer the entire day. It was like nothing had changed, yet Spencer, and JJ too, knew that everything had.

* * *

**I would like to say that I have no problems whatsoever with Will, but this is the story that came to me, thus I am posting it. This shouldn't be any longer than a two- or three-shot. Inspired by Toby Keith's "New Orleans." Please review! Thanks!:)**


	2. Chapter 2

It was one in the morning when he heard her screaming on the couch in the living room. He bolted out of bed and down the hall at speeds that he hadn't known he was capable of. She was thrashing in her sleep, trapped in the folds of the blanket she was covered with.

"JJ." Spencer knelt beside the couch. "JJ! Jennifer, wake up!" Her eyes began to flutter. "Wake up, it's just a dream."

Awake now, she clutched fistfuls of his T-shirt and buried her head in his chest, weeping. "He was doing it all over again and I couldn't stop him, I couldn't get away."

He moved to sit on the couch and pulled her close, reminding her softly, "But you did get away. He's gone now, and if he even thinks about trying to come back or come for you, I can tell you right now that he won't make it past the door without a fatal bullet being lodged somewhere in his person."

JJ sniffled, as her tears lessened. "Why are you doing this for me?"

"Because we're family, and if I was in trouble, you'd do the same for me." The next phrase slipped past his lips before he could register them. "And because I love you."

She froze in his arms. "You do?"

"Yes." He had only just realized it himself.

She sat up, looking him in the eye. "I... I love you too, Spence. I really, really do. I mean it."

They smiled at one another before he was reminded by a glance at the clock what time it was. "JJ," Spencer couldn't believe he was about to suggest this, especially not after what had just been said between them. "Do you want to sleep in my bed? It would be more comfortable for you. I don't mean that I want to do anything, nothing like that. It's just, you still have to be sore, and the couch can't be helping. I can even sleep in here, but I want you to take my bed."

"I won't kick you out of your bed, Spence." She smiled, taking his hand. "But if you want to share it, I would be okay with that."

His heart rate kicked up a notch, but he said, "JJ, you're tired. Exhausted emotionally, physically, and mentally. You need to sleep."

"Then we'll just sleep." she agreed, standing up and tugging on his hand. "Come on." Seeing he wasn't going to move, she dropped the act and said, totally serious, "Please, Spence? I need someone there with me to keep the nightmares away."

He agreed. "Alright."

* * *

The next morning, Spencer stayed motionless with his eyes still closed for a few minutes after waking up. At some point during the night, JJ had ended up in his arms, and he could feel locks of her silky blonde hair splayed across his arms. The scent of her strawberry shampoo surrounded him, and he listened to her steady breathing. When he opened his eyes to see her sleeping peacefully, she took over almost every one of his senses. If only he could taste her kiss.

"Go ahead," JJ murmured groggily with a smile, eyes still closed. "I dare you."

"What?"

"You said something about a kiss." she informed him, yawning and opening her blue, blue eyes.

"Out loud?"

"Yes, Spence, outloud." She smiled. "And I really don't mind, after all, we just spent five and a half hours sleeping in the same bed. I think that you have the right to one little kiss."

"But that's all we did," Spencer pointed out. "Just sleep."

"Well," she asked with arched eyebrows. "Do you want to do something more?"

It was an honest question, he could tell, so he thought for a second before giving her the honest answer. "Yes, I do. After you've fully recovered."

She groaned loudly. "I'm fine, Spence, honest!"

But the black eye, other bruises that he had caught glimpses of, and nightmare all told a different story. And they both knew it.

* * *

They got a case that day, and spent the rest of the week in California.

The first night there, JJ woke herself up from another nightmare, sweating, and with tears running down her face. Considering the fact that each member of the team had gotten their own hotel room this time and what that gave her leeway to do, she lay in bed for another minute.

Yet every time she closed her eyes to try and go back to sleep, Will waited there on the backs of her eyelids with all of the memories of what he had done to her.

Eventually she gave up on trying to sleep in her room. Decision made, she swung her legs out of her bed and stood up, padding on socked feet across the hall to Spencer's room. She knocked softly on the door.

He came and opened the door in a matter of seconds, and she wondered if he had been waiting for her. The thought also crossed her mind to wonder when it was that she had stopped being the one to take care of him and he had started taking care of her. But neither one of them really minded.

He let her in without a word. They both slid under the sheets and she moved close to him, letting him hold her. In this way he held her thoughts of Will at bay, if he didn't make them disappear completely.

* * *

**I would like to say that I have no problems whatsoever with Will, but this is the story that came to me, thus I am posting it. This is probably going to be longer than the promised three-shot. Maybe four or five chapters. Inspired by Toby Keith's "New Orleans." Please review! Thanks!:)**


	3. Chapter 3

The team landed back in Quantico late in the evening eight days after JJ had started staying at Spencer's apartment. Without a word between the two of them, JJ waited in her office, and Spencer stalled in the bullpen until everyone else had left, before coming into her office.

"I need to get my car out of this parking lot." JJ said as soon as he had shut the door behind himself. "It's been here since I got back from New Orleans. And I'm tired of living out of my suitcase. I don't want to go back to my apartment yet, but I need to feel like I have a home again. And my apartment just isn't it. It's not home anymore," She took a deep breath before saying softly, "You are."

Spencer beamed at hearing her say this, then he suggested quickly, "Then move in with me."

"What?" she asked in surprise.

"Move in with me, JJ." He crossed the room and took her hands in his. "I want you, Jennifer Sandra Jarau, to live with me."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded eagerly.

"Alright then." JJ laughed. "I'll take my car to my apartment, talk to my landlord, and get some things that I need. Then I'll come back to your place. How does that sound?"

"Wonderful. Only, it's our place now."

"Our place." JJ corrected.

He turned to leave, still holding one of her hands, but stopped when she didn't budge. "What is it, JJ?"

She grinned. "I don't know if I can have an 'our place' with a man that I've never even kissed."

Spencer's smile got wider as he took the necessary step to stand in front of her once again. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her flush against him, and kissed her soundly.

"Now are we good?" he asked when the need for air became demanding.

"Very." JJ gasped.

Spencer laughed and they left the BAU building hand in hand.

* * *

Later that night, as Spencer got settled on what he had started to think of as "his side of their bed," he asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Fine." JJ answered, not getting where he was going with his question until she looked at him, saw the way he was looking at her. "As a matter of fact..." she said slowly, "I am feeling - how did the good doctor put it? - fully recovered."

That was all that Spencer needed to hear before he took her in his arms. And this time they did much more than just sleep.

* * *

They waited two more months before breaking the news of their relationship to the team - by way of invitations to their wedding.

"How did this happen?" Emily asked in bewilderment.

At the same time, Penelope ordered excitedly, "Explain!"

JJ looked uncertainly at Spencer, who just put his arm around her shoulder and answered, "Let's just say... New Orleans."

The answer made absolutely no sense, but something about the way that Spencer was looking at the team told them that they were not to ask about "New Orleans."

* * *

_Three Years Later_

Holding four month old Jesse Reid in her arms, JJ called after her two year old daughter as she started to dash across the park where the team was gathered for a barbeque, "Anna Reid, slow down!"

Her daughter skidded to an absolute standstill before turning on her heel and running back to hide behind her mother's legs. Shading her eyes against the sun, JJ looked to see what - or apparently who - had caused her toddler's reaction. She began to tremble when she saw him approaching the group, staring straight at her.

Spence saw the change in her demeanor and scrambled to his feet as Will LaMontagne came to stand about a yard in front of JJ, Anna, and Jesse.

"Let's go, JJ." Will ordered. "I've been looking for you for way too long. Now that I've got you again, I'm going back to New Orleans, and you're coming with me."

Spencer opened his mouth to defend his wife, but JJ stopped him by giving him a look and laying a hand on his arm before she handed Jesse to him and pried Anna off of her leg. Resolve building, she forced herself to stop trembling and stepped up to Will before slapping him as hard as she could across the face. He gripped her forearms tightly, but she wrenched herself out of his grasp.

"How dare you even speak to me!" she screamed. "You deserve to rot in hell after everything you did to me in New Orleans!" Her voice became one of steely calm as she said, tone eerily quiet, "Now let me tell you something - you do not have me, I am another man's wife. I am not going with you, because I have a life here, and children that need their mother. I found happiness after everything that happened in New Orleans. That was another time, that was another town, that was another life, and it is not my life anymore. This is. So you will turn around, you will walk away, and you will not come back. If you choose not to do so, I will take the gun out of my boot, and I will shoot you point blank in the chest. Are we clear?"

Knowing that he had lost, Will turned around and walked away, freeing JJ completely from everything that had happened in New Orleans, and freeing her to completely enjoy everything that had and would happen after New Orleans.

* * *

**Already all done! I would like to say that I have no problems whatsoever with Will, but this is the story that came to me, thus I am posting it. Obviously, this is no longer than the three-shot that I promised you guys in the first chapter. Inspired by Toby Keith's "New Orleans." Please review! Thanks!:)**


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